BioShock: Infinite’s vigors and nostrums detailed

BioShock: Infinite’s vigors and nostrums are distinct from BioShock’s tonics and plasmids in more than just name.

Irrational Games lead Ken Levine told MTV Multiplayer that the introduction of a limited charge system on vigors should address weaknesses in the plasmid system

“One problem we had with [BioShock’s mana-equivalent] Eve is that all the plasmids had to be roughly equally as powerful as all the other plasmids because they all ran from the same Eve system,” the designer said.

“You basically felt like ‘Well, if I fire this plasmid versus that plasmid, I can only get one round, where here I can get 50 rounds, but it’s much less powerful.'”

Vigors, on the other hand, will come in varying strengths, but the most powerful will only be good for a small number of charges.

Players will also be restricted in the number of vigors they can carry at one time.

“You pick them up more like weapons in a traditional FPS and they have a number of charges to them,” Levine explained.

” … The same way you make choices about what weapons you carry around in Halo, you’re making that with vigors.”

For those who want to customise their playstyle, Infinite’s nostrums serve a similar role to tonics. But in Infinite, there will be two types – stable, which can be purchased knowing what its effect will be, and potluck, which presents the player with a random choice of a number of permanent powerups, then and there.

“You basically get to choose one of those powers, but you have to choose right then,” Levine said, referencing a similar system in Heroes of Might and Magic as inspiration.

“Then that power goes in your character sheet. And you’re making a lot of those choices throughout the game.

“That’s the direction we’re trying to go. Give you a lot of choices that you don’t have to have that same kind of cumbersome management system because you’re making the choice as it happens. As you find it.”

BioShock Infinite is due sometime in 2012 on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.